Contributing to Germany’s Circular Economy Strategy
ESU-services strengthens the data basis for life cycle assessments in Germany as a project partner
Sustainable decisions require good data. The German Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) has commissioned a consortium led by ifeu – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg with the comprehensive update and expansion of the ProBas database. The project aims to establish a freely available, quality-assured LCA reference database for Germany – and thus a key building block for the implementation of the National Circular Economy Strategy (NKWS). As a partner in the consortium, ESU-services is responsible for the new development of a number of datasets.
What is the project about?
With ProBas, the UBA has been providing free life cycle assessment data for professionals and the interested public for many years. The project, launched in 2026, will comprehensively update and expand this data basis. The starting point is the freely available LCA database of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) (BAFU:26). ESU-services knows this data basis from numerous projects: on behalf of the Swiss Federal Administration, we have ourselves collected and updated datasets for the FOEN database over many years.
Around 4,700 Switzerland-specific datasets from the FOEN database will be reviewed to determine whether and how they can be transferred to German market and production conditions. Adaptations include electricity and heat mixes, transport, import and export ratios, yields, recipes and market compositions.
In addition, 120 new LCA datasets will be developed for particularly relevant products, processes and services of the circular economy. These include bio-based and recycled plastics, metals and critical raw materials, construction products, insulation materials, biogenic materials, recycling and recovery processes, batteries, as well as applications in the fields of green IT, artificial intelligence and digitalisation. Experts from the respective industries will be involved in quality assurance.
Our role in the project
As specialists in the collection of transparent and well-documented life cycle inventory data, ESU-services is responsible for the new development of a series of datasets within the project. We contribute our many years of experience from data collection for the FOEN database and from more than 500 life cycle assessment projects. Our responsibilities range from research on precursor products and processes, through the modelling of supply chains, to the quality assurance of the inventory data.
Transparent, quality-assured and updatable
ifeu is developing a largely automated and reproducible procedure with which large amounts of data can be systematically adapted and reviewed. Technical and substantive validations ensure that the datasets are consistent, transparently documented and usable for life cycle assessments. The procedure is designed in such a way that the German Environment Agency can carry out future updates independently and the methodology can be transferred to other countries in the long term.
The quality-assured datasets are to be published in standardised formats in ProBas and in the FOEN database and made available free of charge. In addition, the results of the life cycle impact assessment will be presented in tabular form. This will create a long-term usable data basis for companies, public authorities, research and civil society – and at the same time an important building block for the implementation of the National Circular Economy Strategy.
The consortium
Together with our partners ifeu (consortium lead), Carbon Minds, Assent (formerly iPoint), INEC, ok*worx Oliver Kusche Research & Consulting and Minviro, we want to create the foundation for a new generation of open and transparent environmental data.
Project: ProBas update for the NKWS (FKZ 3726 35 301 0) – Provision of LCA data on circular economy processes, products and services
Client: German Environment Agency (UBA)
Consortium lead: ifeu (Project management: Axel Liebich, Daniel Münter)
Press release by ifeu
Further information on our databases and life cycle inventory data and our projects can be found on our website.
